TRICHY: At a campaign meet in Trichy on Saturday, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa slammed the Election Commission of India for imposing stringent measures in the name of model code of conduct (MCC). Jayalalithaa termed the action of the EC 'anti-democratic' in her 40-minute speech here on Saturday evening.

"The EC has been issuing directions that halt every activity of the government during the election period. Its permission is required to pass even a small order. It is completely against democracy. Such is the situation that candidate cannot participate in his campaign. Moreover, the EC insists that the name of the candidate should not be pronounced and the candidate should not be identified. It is a mockery of democracy," said Jayalalithaa while addressing a crowd of around 20,000 people including the cadres of AIADMK and its allies.

P Kumar, the AIADMK candidate from Trichy, did not participate in the meeting addressed by the party chief. As per the EC norms, the expenditure for the meeting will be added to the candidate's expenditure account if the candidate is present or even his name is pronounced in the meeting.

The EC did not impose any restriction on the participation of crowd in campaigns during previous elections, she said. "People are coming to campaign in their own vehicles. But the expenditure observers include the cost of transportation in the candidates' account. We oppose such type of measures, but we do not raise any objection to include the expenditure on other aspects of an election campaign," stated the AIADMK leader who also criticised the EC's rule to allow door-to-door campaign late in night.

The CM also targeted arch-rival DMK for its alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam. DMK chief M Karunanidhi did not take a single step to publish the Cauvery tribunal's final order in the central government gazette, she claimed. As in her previous campaign speeches, the AIADMK chief spared BJP at the Trichy meet too.

Jayalalithaa listed out several welfare measures and developmental schemes rolled out by the AIADMK government in Trichy while terming the Trichy constituency as her own. Steps are being taken to convert the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital into a Rs 100 crore super-specialty hospital, she said. It may be recalled that the super-specialty hospital was inaugurated without any equipment before the election date was announced. The hospital still remains non-functional without equipment.

Jayalalithaa termed the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project as a 'selfish project' to increase the wealth of the Thanjavur DMK candidate T R Baalu. "T R Baalu's wives Porkodi and Renuga Devi own the major shares of Meenam Fisheries Limited. Likewise, Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi owns the major shares of Westgate Logistics. If the project is implemented, the two companies will be benefited at the cost of fishermen's livelihood," said Jayalalithaa while speaking at Thanjavur earlier.

Earlier, the CM arrived at Trichy airport around 2pm by a special aircraft and thereafter flew to Thanjavur by a helicopter to address another campaign meeting there. Then, she flew back to Trichy and reached the G-Corner meeting venue at 4.50 pm. After finishing her campaign, she left for Trichy airport by road to take the special aircraft to Chennai.